1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a magnetic transducer head and is directed more particularly to a magnetic transducer head suitable as a multi-channel magnetic transducer head and to the method for manufacturing the head.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the art, a multi-channel magnetic head, which is used for high density digital magnetic recording or the like, is constructed such that the magnetic gap for each track i.e. each channel are arranged very close to each other. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of the prior art multi-channel magnetic head. In the prior art example of FIG. 1, a respective pair of core halves 1 and 2 of each magnetic core are abutted to form a magnetic gap g therebetween and each of the thus formed magnetic head elements is secured to a non-magnetic body 3 with a desired distance between adjacent head elements. At least one of the core halves 1 and 2 determines the depth of the magnetic gap g and is formed with a groove 5 on which a winding 4 is wound. Since the multi-channel magnetic head of the above construction requires a space in each of the magnetic head elements for winding the wire which forms the winding 4, and it becomes difficult if the distance between adjacent tracks of the respective channels i.e. the distance between adjacent magnetic head elements is selected to be smaller than 100 .mu.m. Accordingly, in the above prior art multi-channel magnetic head it is not possible for the distance between the adjacent tracks to be made sufficiently small and hence it is impossible to construct a high density head.
In order to avoid the above defect, there has been proposed a magnetic head in which, as shown in FIG. 2, a first magnetic thin film 6 is formed on a substrate (not shown) by a thin film technique. A conductive thin film 7 is then formed on the film 6 across the film 6 by the thin film technique, and a second thin magnetic film 8 is formed on the film 7 so as to overlap the first thin magnetic film 6 to thereby form a magnetic gap g between the front ends of the first and second thin magnetic films 6 and 8. In this case, however, the winding made of the conductive thin film 7 has only one turn, so that sufficiently large reproduced output is not obtained. Therefore, the one turn thin film magnetic head shown in FIG. 2 although used as a recording magnetic head, but cannot be used as a reproducing magnetic head unless a magneto-resistance effect element or hall effect element is provided by, for example, the thin film technique, which complicates the construction.
Further, there is also proposed a thin film magnetic head in which, as shown in FIG. 3, a first conductive thin film 7A is formed under the first magnetic thin film 6 and a second conductive thin film 7B is formed on the first magnetic film 6 so as to continue and contact the first conductive film 7A, whereby both the films 7A and 7B form a plurality of windings, and a second magnetic thin film 8 is formed on the film 7B to form a magnetic gap g with the first magnetic film 6. The magnetic head shown in FIG. 3 has a defect such that the magnetic films 6 and 8 have lengths which are long and the magnetic reluctance of the magnetic path is high due to the fact that the films 6 and 8 are thin, and generally about 2 to 10 .mu.m in thickness to reduce eddy current loss and the reproduction efficiency is lowered. To avoid this defect, an attempt has been made to form the magnetic films 6 and 8 of magnetic ferrite with large resistivity to avoid the eddy current loss and to increase the thickness of the films 6 and 8. In this case, since the speed of growth of the film by the sputtering of magnetic ferrite is at very low speed such as several hundreds of A per minute, it is difficult to produce. Further, even if the magnetic film is made thick as mentioned above, as the thickness of the magnetic films increases, the accuracy of the magnetic gap g becomes a problem.